We present evolutionary models for solar-like stars with an improved treatment of convection that results in a more accurate estimate of the radius and effective temperature. This is achieved by improving the calibration of the mixing-length parameter, which sets the length scale in the 1D convection model implemented in the stellar evolution code. Our calibration relies on the results of 2D and 3D radiation hydrodynamics simulations of convection to specify the value of the adiabatic specific entropy at the bottom of the convective envelope in stars as a function of their effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity. For the first time, this calibration is fully integrated within the flow of a stellar evolution code, with the mixing-length parameter being continuously updated at run-time. This approach replaces the more common, but questionable, procedure of calibrating the length scale parameter on the Sun, and then applying the solar-calibrated value in modeling other stars, regardless of their mass, composition and evolutionary status. The internal consistency of our current implementation makes it suitable for application to evolved stars, in particular to red giants. We show that the entropy calibrated models yield a revised position of the red giant branch that is in better agreement with observational constraints than that of standard models.
Red giants in the updated APOGEE-Kepler catalogue, with estimates of mass, chemical composition, surface gravity and effective temperature, have recently challenged stellar models computed under the standard assumption of solar calibrated mixing length. In this work, we critically reanalyse this sample of red giants, adopting our own stellar model calculations. Contrary to previous results, we find that the disagreement between the effective temperature scale of red giants and models with solar calibrated mixing length disappears when considering our models and the APOGEE-Kepler stars with sca…
We check how the change in surface conditions between the Sun and red giant branch stars changes the characteristic surface convection length scale to be used in models. We investigate the question in the case of the mixing length theory and of the phenomenology of full spectrum of turbulence. For the observational part, we rely on independent measurements of effective temperatures and interferometric radii of nearby red giants. We find that the local red giant branch cannot be explained taking into account the solar calibrated convective length scale.
We present a comparison between theoretical, frequency-dependent, damping rates and linewidths of radial-mode oscillations in red-giant stars located in the open cluster NGC 6819. The calculations adopt a time-dependent non-local convection model, with the turbulent pressure profile being calibrated to results of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of stellar atmospheres. The linewidths are obtained from extensive peakbagging of Kepler lightcurves. These observational results are of unprecedented quality owing to the long continuous observations by Kepler. The uniqueness of the Kepler mission also m…
We present the first absolute calibration for the yellow post-asymptotic-giant-branch (PAGB) stars in the g- and r-band based on time-series observations from the Zwicky Transient Facility. These absolute magnitudes were calibrated using four yellow PAGB stars (one non-varying star and three Type II Cepheids) located in the globular clusters. We provide two calibrations of the gr-band absolute magnitudes for the yellow PAGB stars, by using an arithmetic mean and a linear regression. We demonstrate that the linear regression provides a better fit to the g-band absolute magnitudes for the yellow…
(Abridged). We introduce the Aarhus Red Giants Challenge, a series of detailed comparisons between widely used stellar evolution and oscillation codes aiming at establishing the minimum level of uncertainties in properties of red giants arising solely from numerical implementations. Using 9 state-of-the-art stellar evolution codes, we defined a set of input physics and physical constants for our calculations and calibrated the convective efficiency to a specific point on the main sequence. We produced evolutionary tracks and stellar structure models at fixed radius along the red-giant branch f…
Asteroseismology is a powerful tool to measure the fundamental properties of stars and probe their interiors. This is particularly efficient for red giants because their modes are well detectable and give information on their deep layers. However, the seismic relations used to infer the mass and radius of a star have been calibrated on the Sun. Therefore, it is crucial to assess their accuracy for red giants which are not perfectly homologous to it. We study eclipsing binaries with a giant component to test their validity. We identified 16 systems for which we intend to compare the dynamical m…
We present here new medium resolution spectra ($λ/Δλ$ $\sim$ 1200) of K$-$M giants covering wavelength range 1.50$-$1.80 and 1.95$-$2.45 $μ$m. The sample includes 72 K0$-$M8 giants from our TIRSPEC observations and all available 35 giants in that spectral range from archival IRTF spectral library. We have calibrated here the empirical relations between fundamental parameters (e.g., effective temperature, surface gravity) and equivalent widths of some important spectral features like Si I, Na I, Ca I, $^{12}$CO. We find that the $^{12}$CO first overtone band at 2.29 $μ$m and second overtone ban…
The intermediate neutron capture process. VI. Proton ingestion and i-process in rotating magnetic asymptotic giant branch stars
Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles（布鲁塞尔自由大学天体物理学与天文学研究所）；Université de Genève（日内瓦大学）；Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院云南天文台）
While the search for exoplanets around main sequence stars more massive than the Sun have found relatively few such objects, surveys performed around giant stars have led to the discovery of more than 30 new exoplanets. The interest in studying planet hosting giant stars resides in the possibility of investigating planet formation around stars more massive than the Sun. Masses of isolated giant stars up to now were only estimated from evolutionary tracks, which led to different results depending on the physics considered. To calibrate the theory, it is therefore important to measure a large nu…
We present spectra obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope of 33 K giants and 20 A dwarfs to assess their suitability as spectrophotometric standard stars. The K giants confirm previous findings that the strength of the SiO absorption band at 8 um increases for both later optical spectral classes and redder (B-V)_0 colors, but with considerable scatter. For K giants, the synthetic spectra underpredict the strengths of the molecular bands from SiO and OH. For these reasons, the assumed true spectra for K giants should be based on neither the assumption that …
Stellar evolution codes play a major role in present-day astrophysics, yet they share common simplifications related to the outer layers of stars. We seek to improve on this by the use of results from realistic and highly detailed 3D hydrodynamics simulations of stellar convection. We implement a temperature stratification extracted directly from the 3D simulations into two stellar evolution codes to replace the simplified atmosphere normally used. Our implementation also contains a non-constant mixing-length parameter, which varies as a function of the stellar surface gravity and temperature …
The parameters and elemental abundances of atmospheres for ten thick-disk red giants was determined from high-resolution spectra by the method of model stellar atmospheres. The results of a comparative analysis of the [Na/Fe] abundances in the atmospheres of the investigated stars and thin disk red giants are presented. Sodium in the atmospheres of thick-disk red giants is shown to have no overabundances typical of thin-disk red giants.
The Kepler mission observed many thousands of red giants. The long time series, some as long as the mission itself, have allowed us to study red giants with unprecedented detail. Given that red giants are intrinsically luminous, and hence can be observed from very large distances, knowing the properties of red giants, in particular ages, is of immense value for studies of the formation and evolution of the Galaxy, an endeavor known as "Galactic archaeology". In this article we review what we have learned about red giants using asteroseismic data. We start with the properties of the power spect…
The first public release of long-cadence stellar photometric data collected by the NASA Kepler mission has now been made available. In this paper we characterise the red-giant (G-K) stars in this large sample in terms of their solar-like oscillations. We use published methods and well-known scaling relations in the analysis. Just over 70% of the red giants in the sample show detectable solar-like oscillations, and from these oscillations we are able to estimate the fundamental properties of the stars. This asteroseismic analysis reveals different populations: low-luminosity H-shell burning red…
The detection of mixed modes in red giants with space missions CoRoT and Kepler has revealed their deep internal structure. These modes allow us to characterize the pattern of pressure modes (through the measurement of their asymptotic frequency separation $Δν$) and the pattern of gravity modes (through the determination of their asymptotic period spacing $ΔΠ_1$). It has been shown that red giant branch (RGB) stars regroup on a well-defined sequence in the $Δν$-$ΔΠ_1$ plane. Our first goal is to theoretically explain the features of this sequence and understand how it can be used to probe the …
Red giant stars are solar-like pulsators presenting mixed-modes. Such modes consist in a coupling between pressure waves propagating in the external convective envelope and gravity waves propagating in the radiative interior. Therefore, the red giant asteroseismology provides us with a direct view on their core and opens the possibility to monitor the evolution of their core rotation. Previous measurements of the mean core rotation revealed that angular momentum is efficiently transferred from the core to the envelope inside red giants, but the physical mechanisms at work are not yet fully und…
The CoRoT and Kepler missions provide us with thousands of red-giant light curves that allow a very precise asteroseismic study of these objects. Before CoRoT and Kepler, the red-giant oscillation patterns remained obscure. Now, these spectra are much more clear and unveil many crucial interior structure properties. For thousands of red giants, we can derive from the seismic data precise estimates of the stellar mass and radius, the evolutionary status of the giants (with a clear difference between clump and RGB stars), the internal differential rotation, the mass loss, the distance of the sta…
The determination of Li and proton-capture element abundances in globular cluster (GC) giants allows us to constrain several key questions on the multiple population scenarios in GCs, from formation and early evolution, to pollution and dilution mechanisms. In this Letter, we present our results on Li abundances for a large sample of giants in the intermediate-metallicity GC NGC 6121 (M4), for which Na and O have been already determined by Marino et al. The stars analyzed are both below and above the red giant branch bump luminosity. We found that the first and second generation stars share th…
Owing to their simplicity and ease of application, seismic scaling relations are widely used to determine the properties of stars exhibiting solar-like oscillations, such as solar twins and red giants. So far, no seismic scaling relations for determining the ages of red giant stars have been developed. Such relations would be desirable for galactic archaeology, which uses stellar ages to map the history of the Milky Way. The ages of red giants must instead be estimated with reference to grids of theoretical stellar models, which can be computationally intensive. Here I present an exhaustive se…
Red-giant stars are an incredible source of information for testing models of stellar evolution, as asteroseismology has opened up a window into their interiors. Such insights are a direct result of the unprecedented data from space missions Kepler and CoRoT as well as recent theoretical advances. Eclipsing binaries are also fundamental astrophysical objects, and when coupled with asteroseismology, binaries would provide two independent methods to obtain masses and radii and exciting opportunities to develop highly constrained stellar models. The possibility of discovering pulsating red giants…
The Kepler mission has been a success in both exoplanet search and stellar physics studies. Red giants have actually been quite a highlight in the Kepler scene. The Kepler long and almost continuous four-year observations allowed us to detect oscillations in more than 15,000 red giants targeted by the mission. However by looking at the power spectra of 45,000 stars classified as dwarfs according to the Q1-16 Kepler star properties catalog, we detected red-giant like oscillations in 850 stars. Even though this is a small addition to the known red-giant sample, these misclassified stars represen…
Asteroseismology allows us to probe stellar interiors. Mixed modes can be used to probe the physical conditions in red giant cores. However, we still need to identify the physical mechanisms that transport angular momentum inside red giants, leading to the slow-down observed for the red giant core rotation. Thus large-scale measurements of the red giant core rotation are of prime importance to obtain tighter constraints on the efficiency of the internal angular momentum transport, and to study how this efficiency changes with stellar parameters. This work aims at identifying the components of …
The mechanism behind the Long Secondary Period (LSP) observed in pulsating red giants still remains unknown. In this work, I investigate the connection between the Red Giant Branch and Asymptotic Giant Branch evolution and the appearance of the LSP - the phenomenon observed in a large fraction the red giants. I use the OGLE-III sample of the OSARG variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I construct the density maps in the period-luminosity as well as color-magnitude planes for the stars showing LSP and compare them to the remaining giants. I also fit the spectral energy distribution to test w…
We report the discovery of a stripped giant + lower giant binary, 2M04123153+6738486 (2M0412), identified during a search for non-interacting compact object-star binaries. 2M0412 is an evolved ($T_{\rm eff, giant}\simeq4000$ K), luminous ($L_{\rm giant}\simeq150~L_\odot$) red giant in a circular $P=81.2$ day binary. 2M0412 is a known variable star previously classified as a semi-regular variable. The cross-correlation functions of follow-up Keck/HIRES and LBT/PEPSI spectra show an RV-variable second component with implied mass ratio $q=M_{\rm giant}/M_{\rm comp}\simeq0.20\pm0.01$. The ASAS-SN,…
We present a study of OGLE light curves of red giant stars exhibiting long secondary periods (LSPs) - an enigmatic phenomenon commonly observed in stars on the upper red giant branch and asymptotic giant branch. We show that the light curves of LSP stars are essentially identical to those of the spotted variables with one dark spot on their photospheres. Such a behavior can be explained by a presence of a dusty cloud orbiting the red giant together with a low-mass companion in a close, circular orbit. We argue that the binary scenario is in agreement with most of the observational properties o…
Dark matter (DM) which constitutes five-sixths of all matter is hypothesised to be a weakly interacting non-baryonic particle, created in the early stages of cosmic evolution. It can affect various cosmic structures in the Universe via gravitational interactions. The effect of DM in main sequence stars and stellar remnants like neutron stars and white dwarfs has already been studied. Red giant phase is a late stage of the evolution of stars. In this work, we study, low-mass red giants stars with admixture of DM and how this can effectively change the intrinsic properties of red giants such as …
The clear detection with CoRoT and KEPLER of radial and non-radial solar-like oscillations in many red giants paves the way to seismic inferences on the structure of such stars. We present an overview of the properties of the adiabatic frequencies and frequency separations of radial and non-radial oscillation modes for an extended grid of models. We highlight how their detection allows a deeper insight into the internal structure and evolutionary state of red giants. In particular, we find that the properties of dipole modes constitute a promising seismic diagnostic tool of the evolutionary st…
Symbiotic systems are interacting binary stars consisting of both hot and cool components. This results in a complex environment that is ideal for studying the latter stages of stellar evolution along with interactions within binary systems. As a star approaches the end of its life, in particular the red giant phase, it exhausts its supply of core hydrogen and begins burning its way through successively heavier elements. Red giants lose mass in the form of a dense wind that will replenish the interstellar medium with chemical elements that are formed through nuclear processes deep in the stell…
Stars destroy lithium (Li) in their normal evolution. The convective envelopes of evolved red giants reach temperatures of millions of K, hot enough for the 7Li(p,alpha)4He reaction to burn Li efficiently. Only about 1% of first-ascent red giants more luminous than the luminosity function bump in the red giant branch exhibit A(Li) > 1.5. Nonetheless, Li-rich red giants do exist. We present 15 Li-rich red giants--14 of which are new discoveries--among a sample of 2054 red giants in Milky Way dwarf satellite galaxies. Our sample more than doubles the number of low-mass, metal-poor ([Fe/H] <~ -0.…
Since the detection of non-radial solar-like oscillation modes in red giants with the CoRoT satellite, the interest in the asteroseismic properties of red giants and the link with their global properties and internal structure is increasing. Moreover, more and more precise data are being collected with the space-based telescopes CoRoT and {\it Kepler}. Particularly relevant has been the detection of mixed modes in a large number of G-K red giants. In this contribution we discuss the potential of these dipole mixed modes to provide information on core extra-mixing and transport of angular momen…
Observations of red (G-K)-giant stars with the CoRoT satellite provide unprecedented information on the stochastically excited oscillations in these stars. The long time series of nearly uninterrupted high-cadence and high-precision photometry revealed the presence of non-radial modes with long lifetimes, which opens the possibility to perform asteroseismology on these stars. Also, the large number of red giants, for which solar-like oscillations are now observed, allows for a more statistical investigation of the characteristics of solar-like oscillations in red giants.
We present a simple diagnostic that can be used to constrain the location of the differential rotation in red giants with measured mixed mode rotational splittings. Specifically, in red giants with radii $\sim 4R_\odot$, the splittings of p-dominated modes (sound wave dominated) relative to those of g-dominated modes (internal gravity wave dominated) are sensitive to how much of the differential rotation resides in the outer convection zone versus the radiative interior of the red giant. An independently measured surface rotation rate significantly aids breaking degeneracies in interpreting th…
The space mission Kepler provides us with long and uninterrupted photometric time series of red giants. We are now able to probe the rotational behaviour in their deep interiors using the observations of mixed modes. We aim to measure the rotational splittings in red giants and to derive scaling relations for rotation related to seismic and fundamental stellar parameters. We have developed a dedicated method for automated measurements of the rotational splittings in a large number of red giants. Ensemble asteroseismology, namely the examination of a large number of red giants at different stag…
We show that the spectrum of radial pulsation modes in luminous red giants consists of both normal modes and a second set of modes with periods similar to those of the normal modes. These additional modes are the red giant analogues of the strange modes found in classical Cepheids and RR Lyrae variables. Here, we describe the behaviour of strange and normal modes in luminous red giants and discuss the dependence of both the strange and normal modes on the outer boundary conditions. The strange modes always appear to be damped, much more so than the normal modes. They should never be observed a…
We performed a detailed study of the evolution of the luminosity of He-ignition stage and of the red giant branch bump luminosity during the red giant branch phase transition for various metallicities. To this purpose we calculated a grid of stellar models that sample the mass range of the transition with a fine mass step equal to ${\rm 0.01M_\odot}$. We find that for a stellar population with a given initial chemical composition, there is a critical age (of 1.1-1.2~Gyr) around which a decrease in age of just 20-30 million years causes a drastic drop in the red giant branch tip brightness. We …
The results of a comparative analysis of the elemental abundances in the atmospheres of 14 red giants with high Galactic space velocities are presented. For almost all of the chemical elements considered, the their abundance trends with metallicity correspond to those constructed for thick-disk dwarfs. In the case of sodium, the main factor affecting the [Na/Fe] abundance in the stellar atmosphere for red giants is the surface gravity that characterizes the degree of development of the convective envelope. The difference between the [Na/Fe] abundances in the atmospheres of thin-and thick-disk …
All of the 14 subfields of the Kepler field have been observed at least once with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, Xinglong Observatory, China) during the 2012-2014 observation seasons. There are 88,628 reduced spectra with SNR$_g$ (signal-to-noise ratio in g band) $\geq$ 6 after the first round (2012-2014) of observations for the LAMOST-Kepler project (LK-project). By adopting the upgraded version of the LAMOST Stellar Parameter pipeline (LASP), we have determined the atmospheric parameters ($T_{\rm eff}$ , $\log g$, and $\rm [Fe/H]$) and heliocentric rad…
In this paper, we report the discovery of two new super Li-rich K giants: HD~24960 and TYC~1751-1713-1. Based on high resolution ($R\approx 60,000$) spectroscopy, we have derived Li abundance of A(Li)$\approx$4.0~dex for both stars. Other elemental abundances are normal of typical K giants. Low ratios of [C/N] $\leq$ $-$ 0.25 and $^{12}C/^{13}C \leq10$ suggest that the stars are in upper RGB phase. Further, based on Gaia astrometry and secondary calibrations using Kepler asteroseismic and LAMOST spectroscopic data, we argue that both stars belong to red clump (RC) phase with core He-burning. R…
The influence of rotational mixing on the global parameters and asteroseismic properties of red giant stars is reviewed. While red giants are generally characterised by low surface rotational velocities, they may have been rotating much more rapidly during the main sequence, so that the rotational history of a star has a large impact on its properties during the red giant phase. For stars massive enough to ignite helium burning in non-degenerate conditions, rotational mixing leads to a significant increase of the stellar luminosity and shifts the location of the core helium burning phase to a …
The space missions CoRoT and Kepler have provided photometric data of unprecedented quality for asteroseismology. A very rich oscillation pattern has been discovered for red giants, including mixed modes that are used to decipher the red giants interiors. They carry information on the radiative core of red giant stars and bring strong constraints on stellar evolution. Since more than 15,000 red giant light curves have been observed by Kepler, we have developed a simple and efficient method for automatically characterizing the mixed-mode pattern and measuring the asymptotic period spacing. With…
This paper reports on time-series analysis of 156 pulsating red giants (21 SRa, 52 SRb, 33 SR, 50 Lb) in the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) observing program for which there are no more than 150-250 observations in total. Some results were obtained for 68 of these stars: 17 SRa, 14 SRb, 20 SR, and 17 Lb. These results generally include only an average period and amplitude. Many, if not most of the stars are undoubtedly more complex; pulsating red giants are known to have wandering periods, variable amplitudes, and often multiple periods including "long secondary period…
High-dispersion spectra for giants through turnoff stars in the Li 6708 Angstrom region have been obtained and analyzed in the old, metal-deficient open cluster, NGC 2243. When combined with high dispersion data from other surveys, the cluster is found to contain a uniquely peculiar star at the luminosity level of the red clump. The giant is the reddest star at its luminosity, exhibits variability at a minimum 0.1 mag level on a timescale of days, is a single-lined, radial-velocity variable, and has V_sin(i) between 35 and 40 km/sec. In sharp contrast with the majority of the red giant cluster…
The space-borne missions CoRoT and Kepler are indiscreet. With their asteroseismic programs, they tell us what is hidden deep inside the stars. Waves excited just below the stellar surface travel throughout the stellar interior and unveil many secrets: how old is the star, how big, how massive, how fast (or slow) its core is dancing. This paper intends to \emph{paparazze} the red giants according to the seismic pictures we have from their interiors.
We have computed linear non-adiabatic oscillations of luminous red giants using a non-local and anisotropic time-dependent theory of convection. The results show that low-order radial modes can be self-excited. Their excitation is the result of radiation and the coupling between convection and oscillations. Turbulent pressure has important effects on the excitation of oscillations in red variables.
The unparalleled photometric data obtained by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has led to improved understanding of red-giant stars and binary stars. We discuss the characterization of known eccentric system, containing a solar-like oscillating red-giant primary component. We also report several new binary systems that are candidates for hosting an oscillating companion. A powerful approach to study binary stars is to combine asteroseimic techniques with light curve fitting. Seismology allows us to deduce the properties of red giants. In addition, by modeling the ellipsoidal modulations we can co…
We present an asteroseismic approach to study the dynamics of the stellar interior in red-giant stars by asteroseismic inversion of the splittings induced by the stellar rotation on the oscillation frequencies. We show preliminary results obtained for the red giant KIC4448777 observed by the space mission Kepler.
Main sequence stars exhibit a clear rotation-activity relationship, in which rapidly rotating stars drive strong chromospheric/coronal ultraviolet and X-ray emission. While the vast majority of red giant stars are inactive, a few percent exhibit strong ultraviolet emission. Here we use a sample of 133 red giant stars observed by SDSS APOGEE and GALEX to demonstrate an empirical relationship between NUV excess and rotational velocity (vsini). Beyond this simple relationship, we find that NUV excess also correlates with rotation period and with Rossby number in a manner that shares broadly simil…
Among 19 red-giant stars belonging to eclipsing binary systems that have been identified in Kepler data, 15 display solar-like oscillations. We study whether the absence of mode detection in the remaining 4 is an observational bias or possibly evidence of mode damping that originates from tidal interactions. A careful analysis of the corresponding Kepler light curves shows that modes with amplitudes that are usually observed in red giants would have been detected if they were present. We observe that mode depletion is strongly associated with short-period systems, in which stellar radii accoun…
Oscillating red-giant stars in binary systems are an ideal testbed for investigating the structure and evolution of stars in the advanced phases of evolution. With 83 known red giants in binary systems, of which only ~40 have determined global seismic parameters and orbital parameters, the sample is small compared to the numerous known oscillating stars. The detection of red-giant binary systems is typically obtained from the signature of stellar binarity in space photometry. The time base of such data biases the detection towards systems with shorter periods and orbits of insufficient size to…
Three red giants (HD 49566 (G5III), HD 169370 (K0III) and HD 169751 (K2III)) have been observed in the CoRoT seismo field and additional ground-based spectra have been acquired. We present preliminary results of a detailed study of these stars using the observational constraints from the spectra and CoRoT data, and models from the YREC stellar evolution code.
We discuss properties of oscillatory convective modes in low-mass red giants, and compare them with observed properties of the long secondary periods (LSPs) of semi-regular red giant variables. Oscillatory convective modes are very nonadiabatic g$^{-}$ modes and they are present in luminous stars, such as red giants with $\log L/{\rm L}_\odot \ga 3$. Finite amplitudes for these modes are confined to the outermost nonadiabatic layers, where the radiative energy flux is more important than the convective energy flux. The periods of oscillatory convection modes increase with luminosity, and the g…
We present empirical metallicity-dependent calibrations of effective temperature against colours for dwarfs of luminosity classes IV and V and for giants of luminosity classes II and III, based on a collection from the literature of about two hundred nearby stars with direct effective temperature measurements of better than 2.5 per cent. The calibrations are valid for an effective temperature range 3,100 - 10,000 K for dwarfs of spectral types M5 to A0 and 3,100 - 5,700 K for giants of spectral types K5 to G5. A total of twenty-one colours for dwarfs and eighteen colours for giants of bands of…
Since the detection of non-radial solar-like oscillation modes in red giants with the CoRoT satellite, the interest in the asteroseismic properties of red giants and the link with their global properties and internal structure is substantially increasing. Moreover, more and more precise data are being collected with the space-based telescopes CoRoT and Kepler. In this paper we present a survey of the most relevant theoretical and observational results obtained up to now concerning the potential of solar-like oscillations in red giants.
The thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) experienced by low- and intermediate-mass stars is one of the most uncertain phases of stellar evolution and the models need to be calibrated with the aid of observations. To this purpose, we couple high-quality observations of resolved stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with detailed stellar population synthesis simulations computed with the TRILEGAL code. The strength of our approach relies on the detailed spatially-resolved star formation history of the SMC, derived from the deep near-infrared photometry of the VISTA survey of th…
